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President Obama’s administration has decided to delay enforcement of one of the key provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA): the Employer Mandate.
Mark Mazur, Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, posted on the White House’s Treasury blog on July 2. In this post, he announced that the administration has decided to postpone enforcement of the Employer Mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act by a full year.
This was done because the administration has “heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively. We recognize that the vast majority of businesses that will need to do this reporting already provide health insurance to their workers, and we want to make sure it is easy for others to do so.”
According to the blog, this action accomplishes two goals: “First, it will allow us to consider ways to simplify the new reporting requirements consistent with the law. Second, it will provide time to adapt health coverage and reporting systems while employers are moving toward making health coverage affordable and accessible for their employees.”
Employer Mandate Impact on Businesses
Setting politics aside, I want to address the impact of this news on the business climate.
People whose opinions I trust have shared that they think this law will be overturned. While many businesses would relish that, I was hesitant to believe that it would happen. Until I read this Wall Street journal editorial on July 3 that addresses the issue of the individual mandate. The article contents that the mandate cannot possibly survive this and be implemented on on 1/1/14.
The reason, they cite, is in the name, Affordable Care Act. Individuals without coverage at work and those who earn lower income levels are supposed to be subsidized. This subsidizing would occur when buying insurance through exchanges.
According to the WSJ editorial, “Individuals are only supposed to be eligible for ObamaCare’s subsidies if their employer doesn’t offer the right benefits. But how will the Treasury know who qualifies in 2014 if they lack the information that businesses are supposed to provide? Citizens must also pay the individual mandate-tax if they decline coverage from their employer. How will the Treasury verify these offers?
In other words, who qualifies for the subsidies?
When you look at these latest developments, plus the growing concerns that these Federal exchanges will not be ready to go by October of this year, the employer-sponsored healthcare landscape has become much more muddled.
Do you think that the individual mandate will survive? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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There are a lot of factors that go into determining what your business’s workers’ compensation rates will be. But the simple truth is this: the more claims your employees file, the higher your rate will be.
Fortunately, there are two strategies you can follow that will limit the amount of time and money you spend dealing with workers’ compensation claims.
Loss Prevention Strategies
They say that prevention is the best medicine. That holds true for workers’ compensation management, too! Here’s a quick list of actions that you can take to reduce the risk of workplace injuries, and, therefore, claims:
Provide safety training programs
- Create employee safety manuals
- Clearly establish workplace safety guidelines
- Undergo regular workplace inspections
- Implement drug-free and drug–testing programs
- Implement injury reporting procedures
Cost Containment Strategies
In the State of Ohio, if a company has a better safety record than the average company of their industry, the company may qualify for what’s called a group rating program.
In essence, all this does is gives a group of companies with good safety records the opportunity to qualify for workers’ compensation rate discounts. In some cases, companies can qualify for discounts of 50% with the group rating program.
If you’re not taking advantage of these strategies, the time to start is now. And if you’re not sure where to begin, give us a call at 330-659-0100 today.
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What would you say if a prospective employer offered you perks like free catered meals, free fitness classes, tuition reimbursement, unlimited vacation days, and– for the expectant parents out there– four months of paid parental leave?
You might be tempted to rip the contract out of his or her hand and sign it on the spot—right?
Well, we didn’t make those up. Practical benefits like these are real, and some are being implemented at companies that constantly rank at the top of employee satisfaction lists.
So what does this mean for you as an employer?
In order to attract and retain the best employees, you should offer competitive compensation, medical benefits, and 401K options that are consistent with your industry and location. Prospective employees will take these more practical benefits into consideration.
We know most companies won’t be able to afford perks like the big tech giants in California, but here are four ways you could make life a little easier and more enjoyable for your employees.
Four Affordable Perks for your Small Business to Attract & Maintain the Best Employees
1. Flexible work schedules
More and more, work and life seem to be connected outside of the working environment. Establish guidelines that allow employees to work from home or in the evening if they have something to go to, like a parent teacher conference.
Or, consider flexible work hours. If getting to work earlier and leaving earlier makes sense for the family schedule, commuting, or other reasons and doesn’t conflict with business operations, then maybe this is something for you to consider.
Showing flexibility and empathy for employees by allowing flexible schedule will help build a stronger bond, making your company more attractive as a potential employer. It also helps promote a healthy work-life balance, and help make employees’ lives a little easier knowing they have this flexibility. Who wouldn’t want to work for a company that is trying to make life a little easier?
2. Pet-Friendly Workspace
This one is not for everyone. But if it fits with your company, try allowing pets on specific days (maybe once a month, or once a year to start) to make employees feel more comfortable. Take Your Dog to Work Day is a national event and they talk about building codes, liability issues, and employees’ allergies or phobias to consider before adopting this perk.
There are many other articles about how to make a workplace pet friendly and tips on creating a dog-friendly workplace.
Boss need convincing? Share these three benefits of pets in the workplace from PetMD:
Pets in the workspace:
- Help reduce stress
- Encourage longer work hours
- Increase camaraderie
3. Free snacks
While most companies won’t be able to cater every meal like some of the big tech giants, providing coffee & tea, healthy snacks to share, and maybe breakfast every once in a while will help boost morale and keep your employees focused.
4. Lunch-time yoga & Running groups
Investing in employee preventative health efforts could help lower healthcare premiums down the road. Depending on your workspace, you could look into hiring in a lunch-time yoga instructor, or massage therapist to help reduce employee stress levels. Or, for the more active employee, look into hosting a running group, training for a charity race, or getting your company involved in a sports league. These activities get people active and also encourage team building outside the workplace.Practical benefits like these can help give you the edge when a prospective employee compares job offers in a similar market, and they show you care about the well-being of your employees.What other affordable perks would attract new employees? Let us know what you think in the comments below.Photo Credit: “Office Dog” by seanhagen is licensed under CC BY 2.0
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Ahhhh—feel the ocean breeze blowing through your hair, your toes digging into the sand, and the cool drink in your hand. Your computer is nowhere in sight. That’s right, you’re on vacation!
As an employee, taking time off is important. It keeps you focused, gives you a break and lets you spend some quality time with your family or friends. As a company, administering a paid time off (PTO) policy is also important, and much less relaxing than taking the time off.
With traditional PTO and sick time plans, your company is trying define and limit the liability of paying an employee for time they didn’t work. Sounds simple.
But how do you keep track of it all? Without a streamlined system it can be easy to miscalculate PTO for your employees. Miscalculations mean lost money for your company. According to a 2010 survey by Kronos conducted with Mercer, poorly planned absences cost U.S. organizations over 8% of their payroll each year.
What can your business do to effectively manage PTO?
Maybe you’ve seen that some companies offer unlimited vacation days, or an “open” vacation policy. This may be an option for some companies, but it requires a high level of trust and accountability between employees and managers, and would still require planning for coverage of the absent employee. It also brings into question state requirements about reimbursement for unused PTO if an employee were to leave a company. This clearly isn’t a solution for everyone.
A better option is to look to a professional employer organization (PEO) to outsource human resource (HR) functions, including management of PTO.
Online HR Portal Available 24/7
If you’re nervous that outsourcing HR functions like PTO means you have less control over your business, you’re not alone. In reality, though, the opposite is true. GMS actually gives you stronger control.
How? We store all the information that you and your employees need so you can have a centralized place to measure, track and review critical HR information 24 hours a day, including, but not limited to:
- Time off requests
- Performance reviews
- Job descriptions
- Employee handbooks
- Company communication
Talk with GMS to learn more. Once we’ve had the chance to talk, we’re pretty sure the only question you’ll have is what you can do with time you used to spend keeping track of your employees’ PTO.We suggest taking a vacation—you deserve it.Photo Credit: ““Walking in sugary white sand on #AmericasBestBeaches” by Visit St.Pete/Clearwater is licensed under CC BY 2.0
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Losing weight is one of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions. After a holiday season filled with cookies, candy, and booze, it’s easy to understand why.
Unfortunately, most people don’t stick to their resolutions. In fact, so many people fail at keeping them that January 17th has become known as National Ditch Your Resolution Day.
How Does This Impact Me?
It’s simple. Unhealthy employees cost more to employ. They are less productive, more likely to miss work, increase insurance premiums, and drive up workers’ compensation costs.
How Can I Help My Employees?
One of the best things you can do is implement a workplace health program. These programs are structured to provide the support your employees (and you) need to stay on track, including:
- Setting realistic and specific goals
- Creating a plan to reach those goals
- Tracking and measuring progress
- Building a rewards system to keep you motivated, and more.
Take a look at the following articles for more tips on ways to keep New Year’s Resolutions:
- 10 Ways to Make Your New Year’s Resolution Stick
- Ways to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions
- 3 Tips to Get Past National Ditch Your Resolution Day
You can also share these great apps with your employees:
What Other Benefits Do Wellness Programs Offer?
Because wellness programs are linked to higher morale, they can help you reduce employee turnover and retain quality employees.
Wellness programs can also be set you apart from your competition. They can make your benefits package more attractive, which helps you recruit higher quality talent.
What Are My Next Steps?
There is no “right way” to build a wellness program. You have to create something that works for your group. Get creative and you’ll start seeing positive results sooner than you think.
And of course, if you’re not sure where to start, contact GMS at 888-823-2084 today.
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Managing the operations of a small business is costly and requires time away from more valuable projects. That’s why many small and mid-size businesses outsource human resources, payroll, employee benefits, and risk management services. A PEO (Professional Employer Organization) can help take these responsibilities off the plate of business owners, so they can focus on the growth and success of their business.
We’ve put together a guide to understand what PEO services entail and how to choose the right PEO for your business.
What is a PEO?
A PEO provides comprehensive business solutions and services. Through the co-employment model, PEOs work with small and mid-size businesses to:
- Manage payroll and tax administration
- Manage human resources and risk management functions
- Provide employee benefits
- Stay compliant
By providing these services, PEOs help make the companies they serve a better place to work and conduct business. This typically translates into faster growth, higher retention rates, and increased success for businesses. The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO) found that businesses working with a PEO:
- Grow 7 to 9 percent faster
- Have 10 to 14 percent lower employee turnover
- Are 50 percent less likely to go out of business
PEOs help businesses grow by allowing them to spend more time improving productivity and profitability while focusing on their core mission. Additionally, employees benefit by gaining access to big-business employee benefits such as 401(k) plans, wellness programs, and health, dental, life and other insurance offerings. All of this contributes to the success of a company.
How to Choose a PEO
There are more than 900 PEOs in the U.S., according to NAPEO. With so many options, it can be hard to know which one to choose. Follow these tips to help you to choose the right PEO for your business.
Assess Your Business Needs
Before talking to a PEO, you should take stock of your business needs. What current challenges does your business face? Do you anticipate any changes to your company that could impact the services you need? Look at facets of your business, such as:
- Payroll: Between managing payroll and filing taxes, small and mid-sized companies spend an average of $2,000 per employee each year to handle payroll and many incur IRS penalties each year due to compliance issues. Outsourcing payroll services to a PEO can save you time and money by providing you with a simplified, online payroll system.
- Human Resources: From recruiting and retaining employees to tracking vacation time, managing your company’s HR responsibilities takes a lot of time. Outsourcing these HR functions to a PEO can help you save time and money, while growing your business.
- Risk Management: Managing your company’s risk on your own can be time-consuming and costly. Instead, you can build toward a more secure future by outsourcing to experts at a PEO. PEOs can help you qualify for workers’ compensation discounts, keep unemployment tax rates down, and create a safer environment for your employees.
Identifying your needs within each of these categories will help you better determine how your business will use a PEO and set the stage for choosing a qualified partner.
Build Your Benefits Package
Employee benefits will make your business a great place to work and help retain talent. While you’ll be hard pressed to find a PEO that doesn’t offer access to health insurance, the providers they work with and the amount of coverage their plans provide will vary. In addition to assessing your business needs, you’ll need a good sense of what types of health coverage your current and future employees will require and what you’re willing to spend on it.
When you work with a PEO, instead of directly with insurance companies, you’ll be able to leverage buying power through mass policies, which lets you take advantage of purchasing multiple policies at typically lower premiums.
Speaking of multiple policies, you’ll also want to consider other benefits like dental, vision, and life insurance as well as 401(k) retirement savings programs to make your business more attractive to quality candidates. Additionally, wellness programs can help manage your premiums, while keeping your business running like a well-oiled machine. Whichever benefits are most appealing for your business, you’ll want to do your research to make sure you find a PEO that has everything you require.
Perform a PEO background check
When vetting PEOs, it’s important to look at their history, experience, and qualifications. Ask questions, such as:
- How many companies do they partner with?
- Do they have experience working in your industry?
- How many employees do they represent?
- What is their client retention rate?
And don’t forget to look at reviews from places like Google and Facebook. These are all telling signs of whether a PEO will be able to properly handle your business needs.
Additionally, accreditations from organizations like the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and certifications, such as the Certification Program for Professional Employer Organizations (CPEOs) from the IRS, help demonstrate trustworthiness and reliability in a PEO. CPEO certification affects the employment tax liabilities of both the CPEO and its customers. To become and remain certified under the CPEO program, CPEOs must meet tax status, background, experience, business location, financial reporting, bonding, and other requirements. With only 37 CPEOs in the country, small businesses know they are working with a trusted partner.
Evaluate a PEO’s Technology
The purpose of PEO is to make your life easier. If the technology platform that a PEO offers isn’t simple to use, then the PEO is going to be more of a burden than an asset to your company. Web-based payroll portals benefit employers by compiling everything they need to manage their back office in one place. They also help employees get paid on time, track time, and access W-2’s and paystubs.
Your PEO’s online payroll system should help employers:
- Manage and access payroll information
- Complete payroll in minutes, not hours
- Easily keep track of deductions
- Simplify workers’ compensation calculations and payments
- Generate on-demand payroll reports
These payroll functions streamline the process for employers and keep employees satisfied.
Beyond payroll, any other administrative functions a PEO can digitize is only to your advantage. Your PEO should offer online data collection services for:
- Employee reviews
- Timekeeping and PTO requests
- Health insurance and employee benefits
- Company communication
- Employee handbooks
Being able to store these types of files in an online portal makes it easier for you to access, edit, and track.
Focus on Your Business
The point of working with a PEO is to ease your workload. A PEO that you have to manage is only going to add to your stress and laundry list of tasks and responsibilities. Knowing your PEO is taking care of your more administrative needs while you focus on the core of your business is comforting to business owners.
Your PEO should provide you with designated HR, payroll, and benefits specialists to meet all of your needs. Additionally, your PEO should have a comprehensive risk management team, from safety specialists that keep your workplace and employees safe, to unemployment and workers’ compensation experts to investigate and help process claims.
By having a PEO handle the HR, payroll, benefits, and risk management side of your business, you’ll be able to focus on what really matters: building your business.
Work With a PEO
When you work with a PEO, you need to make sure all your needs will be met. Group Management Services offers payroll, human resources, employee benefits, and risk management services to help your business succeed. With our proven history, easy-to-use online payroll portal, and dedicated team of experts, GMS is proud to take on your administrative burdens. When you work with us, you can put your focus back on client relationships, building an effective team, and growing your profits, while we help you reduce costs, limit risk, and save time and money.
Ready to work with a best-in class PEO? Contact GMS today to talk with one of our experts to see how we can make your business simpler, safer, and stronger.
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As a small business owner, a day off from work can be hard to come by. Nevertheless, come election day, flu season, or travel season, your employees will need a resource to turn to in order to know whether or not they have to show up for work. It’s important to include an employee leave policy in your employee handbook, so your employees understand the rules and expectations about the amount of time they’re allowed to be away from work.
“There are so many different types of employee leave, and each bucket may require its own policies in the company handbook,” says Beth Milito, senior executive counsel at the National Federation of Independent Business’s (NFIB) Legal Center.
When crafting employee leave policies, you should first check the employee leave laws in your state. Employee leave laws govern whether an employer must allow employees to take time off―either paid or unpaid―under a different number of circumstances, such as vacations, sick days, holidays, bereavement, and jury duty. Leave laws also address whether an employer must pay accrued leave to employees upon separation from employment.
Georgia Leave Laws
In Georgia, vacations, sick days, holidays, bereavement, jury duty, and more are all governed by the state’s leave laws. Here’s what Georgia employers need to know about employee leave laws in their state.
Vacation leave
Vacations are nice to take every now and then, but that’s all they are: nice to have. In Georgia, employers are not required to provide employees with paid or unpaid vacation benefits.
However, many small businesses offer paid time off to stay competitive in recruiting and retaining employees. According to NFIB, 73 percent of small businesses offer PTO to full-time employees. While the number of days offered is typically dependent on an employee’s length of service, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says many offer an average of 10 days for PTO each year.
Should you decide to terminate a worker’s employment, or an employee decides to quit, it’s important to establish a clear policy regarding payment for any vacation time left on the table. In Georgia, employers need to establish policies either:
- Requiring employees be paid for accrued vacation time.
- Denying employees payment for accrued vacation time.
- Disqualifying employees from payment of accrued vacation if they are terminated.
- Disqualifying employees from payment of accrued vacation if they fail to comply with specific requirements, such as giving two weeks’ notice.
Sick leave
What happens if an employee feels under the weather? In Georgia, you aren’t required to offer paid or unpaid sick leave. However, like vacation time, many small businesses will offer employees time to recover from an illness. According to NFIB, 56 percent offer paid sick leave, with many offering a week or more.
Bereavement
Bereavement leave is time taken by an employee due to the death of another individual, usually a close relative. Georgia leave laws do not require employers to provide employees with bereavement leave or leave to attend funerals. However, NFIB says that nearly nine out of 10 companies offer bereavement leave.
Holidays
Small businesses in Georgia are not required to provide paid or unpaid holidays off. However, NFIB data shows that nearly 80 percent of small businesses offer paid time off for holidays. The typical paid holidays include:
- New Year’s Day
- Memorial Day
- Easter
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Day
Jury duty
Georgia law makes it illegal to discharge, discipline, or penalize an employee for taking leave for attending a judicial proceeding, including a subpoena, jury duty summons, or other court order. While Georgia doesn’t have any laws specifically requiring you to provide paid leave, the Attorney General is in favor of it.
Voting leave
On election days, Georgia leave laws require employers to provide up to two hours of leave for an employee to vote. However, the employee must give reasonable notice and the polls also can’t be open for at least two hours before or after the employee’s shift.
Georgia business owners aren’t required to pay employees for voting leave. You can also determine the hours an employee may leave their shift to vote.
Handling Employee Leave
Leave laws vary by state, so it’s important for employers across the country to be informed when creating employee leave policies. Whether you own a business in Georgia or some other state, it’s important to make sure your employee handbook explains how your business handles employee leave.
As a Professional Employer Organization, GMS can help ensure your handbook is updated with the necessary laws and regulations to best protect your business. We’ll save you time and stress by managing key business functions like payroll, benefits administration, and other important services.
Contact our Georgia office or one of our many other locations today to talk to one of our experts about how we can help you make your business simpler, safer, and stronger.
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